Assets Are Frozen in Alleged Stock Scheme
From Reuters
A U.S. court has frozen $1.4 million in assets in connection with what regulators called an international stock manipulation scheme that drove the shares of a Los Angeles company from pennies to a high of $90.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Socius Holdings Ltd., which operated from Switzerland, worked with others to create the illusion of a rising market in the stock of Cameron International Inc., a self-described marketing firm.
The agency charged that from August through November, Socius, director Peter Jessop and defendants Shawn Casius and Steven Wright used a series of coordinated purchases, sales and matched orders to induce others to buy shares of Cameron’s thinly traded stock at inflated prices.
